How To Minimize Expression Lines

Expression lines are another symptom of intrinsic aging. Individuals will develop lines from consistent and repetitive facial movements. ‘Smile’ lines occur in the nasolabial area. ‘Frown’ lines may also occur in the forehead, eye and chin areas.

Any repetitive movement of a facial expression such as raising the eyebrows, frowning, smiling scowling, or any other facial movement will eventually cause a crease to occur, just as pants will wrinkle more the more you wear them.

‘Eye smilers’ smile and squint at the same time, creating additional eyelines. Squint lines also occur around the eyes from squinting due to sun exposure, light exposure, or facial expression. It is important to wear ultraviolet protective sunglasses while outside to provide protection against both ultraviolet light exposure and the tendency to squint when exposed to light.

Smokers will inevitably get ‘smoker’s lines’ around the mouth and eyes from continually moving these areas during smoking activities. Smoking also causes thousands of free radicals to invade the body, and is known to interfere with proper collagen production.

Sleep habits, such as sleeping on one side or directly on the face, will eventually create lines and elasticity problems. It is advisable to sleep on their backs as much as possible, helping to avoid ‘sleep creases’ which when they happen repetitively have a strong effect on the sagging symptoms of the face.

The ‘wearing-out’ of the foundation

As time progresses, the muscles, fat and skin on our faces undergo structural changes. The amount of fact in the subcutaneous layer decreases with age, providing less cushion and plumpness to the skin, resulting in less support. People who are overweight often do not have as many noticeable wrinkles on the face as thin people or people of normal weight. This does not mean that the skin has not aged; it simply means that there is more fat to ‘plump out’ the skin, creating a smoother looking appearance. The skin is stretched back and forth over a lifetime, causing an ‘enlargening’ of the skin, and gravity pulls down on the skin. The muscles have partially receded, causing the effect of more elastosis.

Prevention on intrinsic aging

Although there is really very little anyone can do to completely prevent inevitable intrinsic aging of the skin, one can develop certain health habits that will help delay the onset and possibly lessen the severity of intrinsic aging symptoms. Prevention of sun exposure is the biggest preventable factor...

9 Comments on "How To Minimize Expression Lines"

Hi Shirleen, thanks for this very helpful post! I’m so worried about wrinkles forming from too much facial expression that i usually try to maintain a straight face quite a bit, which is very difficult indeed! Haha

Btw, I’ve also sent you an invite to Philips’ “Get Set for a Fabulous Christmas” Workshop, was wondering if you have received it?

Unfortunately, there isn’t any skincare products that can really eliminate expression lines as this aging process is more than skin-deep. It affects muscles, dermis and subcutaneous fat. Hence, there is no face-lift in a bottle.

But you can try to reduce the look of lines by plumping up with hyaluronic acid. HA is the moisturizing matrix supporting the dermis and epidermis which lost with aging. It holds water, moisturizes the skin and helps make the lines look softer.

In addition, you can prevent further damage by slowing down the lost of collagen in the deeper layers of the skin. Feed your skin with loads of antioxidants to combat free radicals and boost collagen with vitamin C and A.